Stuff You Should Know - How U.S. Marshals Work

Episode Date: September 29, 2011

Thought Chuck and Josh had already covered every law enforcement agency? Think again. The Marshals Service is the oldest law enforcement branch in the land, dating back to 1789. Listen up for how to get a free ride courtesy the Marshals in this episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Flooring contractors agree. When looking for the best to care for hardwood floors, use Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner. The residue-free, fast drying solution is specially designed for hardwood floors, delivering the safe and effective clean you trust. Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner is available at most retailers where floor cleaning products are sold and on Amazon. Also available for your other hard surface floors like Stone, Tile, Laminate, Vinyl, and LVT. For cleaning tips and exclusive offers, visit Bona.com slash Bona Clean. The War on Drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call,

like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid work. Be sure to listen to The War on Drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HouseStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, which makes this Stuff You Should Know. And we are about to present part 80 in our series on law enforcement agencies. Pretty soon we're going to just start profiling like X-Cops and stuff like

that. Dude, we still haven't done ATF or CIA or FBI. The CIA article leaves a lot. No, I'm sure. It needs some stuff. So we're going to do that on week when we have extra time to do a lot more research. Okay. Deal. Well, today we're talking about the US Marshals. That's right. So Chuck, have you ever seen the movie The Fugitive? I have. Well, then we don't need to do this episode. Why is that it? That's it. That's what the US Marshall is. It's the most accurate portrayal of a US Marshall ever created by man. Tommy Lee Jones? Yes. He was good in that. I'm a big fan. Yeah, I know. He was great. Okay. It's really tough to go wrong with Tommy Lee Jones. Oh, yeah. What was he in? Was he in No Country for Old Men? And he's the last lines and stuff like that?

Yeah. He actually, if you've read the book, is the main character is pretty much his character. That's why when you see the movie and gosh, I hate the spoilers. Spoiler alert. When you see the movie and what's his face dies. Javier Bardem? No. What you think is the main character? Yes. What's his face? Josh Brolin? Josh Brolin. In the movie, it's kind of like, wait, he just kind of unceremoniously died and they didn't make a big deal about it. Remember in the movie? Yeah. But if you read the book, he's not really the main character. So it sort of makes more sense. I got you. Anyway, I love the Coen Brothers. They know what they're doing. Oh, God, they're the best. But again, Tommy Lee Jones, this is the how Tommy Lee Jones works episode.

And he's a class act. And Chuck, we're talking about the photo of Marshall's really. I was joking about Tommy Lee. Did you know that they are the oldest law enforcement agency in the land? Yeah. And most versatile, they claim. Yeah. Very proud of that fact. Yes. They do a lot of stuff. They really do. And in a lot of ways, they're very unsung. They have a very long history. They were first created in 1789. The first time Congress met, the Marshall service was literally created. And they've had their highs and their lows in the 225 years since George Washington appointed the first 13 Marshals. That is very cool. Yeah. Right out of the gate. And basically, they set up the federal courts and they said, well, we need some people to kind of protect

these courts. We need some people to crack some heads. US Marshals. Done. Yeah. And apparently, as far as like law enforcement agencies in the US goes, the federal Marshals have kind of had the short end of the stick traditionally. Yeah. Especially early on in the country's history, when states rights wasn't just relegated to like, you know, you know. Yeah. It was a big deal to everybody, right? Right. So you had this guy who was sometimes the only law enforcement official in the entire land in your whole area. And he's trying to shove federale laws down your throat when you're all about states rights. That's right. And that was pretty much the beginning of the Marshall service was basically being at odds with their friends and neighbors about the

stuff that they were doing. A lot of times, it was stuff that proved to be unconstitutional, like the alien and sedition act. Yeah. Remember our buddy Eugene Debs, who ran for president and got a million votes from jail here in Atlanta? The socialist. Yeah. He was jailed for the alien and sedition act. Oh, really? Yeah. Remember, like you couldn't even speak against the government publicly or else it was considered treason around World War One. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Marshall's had to arrest people like Eugene Debs for that kind of stuff. So there have been plenty of points in the history of this agency where like, they haven't had to do very good stuff. And they've suffered for it. Yeah. And the Grabster, Ed Grabinowski, who wrote this as well as many

other cool articles that we podcast on, pointed out that the Civil War, or not the Civil War, but slavery was kind of a contentious point because in the south, they had to enforce slave trade bans on slave imports. And then in the north, they had to prosecute people fugitives on the run. Right. And northern abolitionists were like, eh. And in the south, they were like, eh. So they were like, where do you mean we can't bring in our slaves? Yeah. So yeah. And the Marshalls were like, man, no one likes me anywhere. I'm going to go out west. And they were liked in the west. Yeah. And a lot of places probably. Yes. Because literally out west, it was lawless in many, many respects and literally and figuratively, there would be a Marshall out there. And the

Marshall, as you would see, just some guy like sitting in an office in some boom town, right? Yeah. Like Baton Masterson. And that's it. And then he would deputize a posse. That's extremely accurate. There's a, there would be a Marshall out there. And if he needed some extra help, he could grab some law abiding citizens who had guns and say, you're now an official of the U.S. government. And you have to come crack heads with me. That's really how it happened. But yes, like you said, in situations like that, most of the law abiding people are the people who are just trying to mine some gold and leaving other people alone. They were very happy that there was a Marshall there. Yeah. A little order for a change. Right. So there's like a little uptick

in a Marshall appreciation in the 19th century, the second half of it out west. Yeah. That's kind of their heyday too, from what I gather. Yeah. If you don't count now. And I actually found too that a lot of states still have a posse, but it's like, you know, the Arkansas, U.S. Marshall posse. And it's just the organization that helps to raise awareness and stuff. It's like the PBA. Yeah. They'll go around to schools and stuff like that. That's the Marshall's posse. Yeah. Wow. It's a very valuable job they do, Josh. Well, there's a, remember, there's the posse Comitatus Act that prevents posse, doesn't it? I never heard of it. Yeah. We talked about in the Delta Force. Oh, we didn't. Episode. It's like, it's, it's the law that prevents Delta Force from operating in

the U.S. ostensibly. Well, in these days, you try to get a posse together and people are like, dude, I'm watching Lost Boys. Come on. Nice. 20th century, early 20th century, they were pretty close to obscurity because they had a reputation for being fat, lazy, retired cops. Dimwitted Grabinowski puts it. I love that, that word. Dumb, fat, retired cops. Yeah. Basically, that the, I don't know what led to that, but they just kind of lost their, their shape. Yeah. And everybody knew it too. And then the respect for the Marshall service went down tremendously. Once again. It sounds like it was a place where old cops go to die. Yeah. Or to retire. Yeah. And then a guy came along in 1939, his name is Frank Murphy, and he became attorney general

of the United States. And he said, you're going to stop being so pudgy. See, we're going to get you to work out. You're going to be good at arresting criminals. See, they said, whatever you say, Murph. Yeah. And that was that. Yeah. And they started taking shape again, literally and figuratively, I guess. And, you know, throughout the 20th century, made their name for doing such brave things like escorting black students to school during segregation. Those were Marshalls. Yeah. When you see that famous picture. Yeah. Although I think some of them were National Guard as well. No, the National Guard were ordered out by racist governors to block the students from coming in. Really? Yes. And the Marshalls were in odds with the National Guard. Yeah.

National Guard state. I feel like a dummy. I don't. Okay. I mean, it just makes sense, you know, like that. Well, the National Guard's going to be out there protecting them and out. That's a big black eye on the state of Alabama in particular and Mississippi. That's true. They also kind of mixed it up with anti-war protesters during Vietnam and basically made more of a name for themselves as the 20th century advance. As hippy beaters. Yeah, that's true. So what do they do though? And also, I just want to point out, I don't advocate the beating of hippies. And if you're going to send me an email, go back and listen to the whole catalog first, okay? Except hippy rob. He deserves a good beatdown. Give it not really. Not really. So, Chuck,

finally we arrived to current day as far as when this article was written, 2007. And at a place called Fort Smith, Arkansas, you will find the National Museum of the U.S. Marshalls. Still, to this day, it's there. Oh, really? Four years later. I did not know that. Yeah. And they changed their badge too. Used to be a six-pointed star. Oh, is it? It's five? Yeah. Okay. So, okay, it did start out to be a six-silver star in a circle. Yeah. Okay. So now it's a five-pointed star in a circle, but apparently up until 1941. So there's 94 districts that coincide with judicial districts, federal judicial districts, that Marshalls serve. That's right. And every district was in charge of creating its own badge until 1941 when they standardized it. And each district only has one

Marshall, official Marshall. The rest are deputies and things like that. Right. There's about 4,000 deputies and 94 Marshalls working. That's true. 3,953 to be exact. I saw that. It said on their website approximately 3,950. And I was like, you know, we don't round up to 4,000 anymore when we hit that. Well, it's better than having a ticker that takes one down every time someone dies in the line of duty. Right. Or up one when one's born. Yeah, that's true. Or a new hire. Right. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy, number one, is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2200 pounds of marijuana.

Yeah, and they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs, of course, yes, they can do that in on the prime example. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. People who don't know Bruce have to understand two things. One is he's built like something

Michelangelo's card out of a piece of marble. True. This is true. And number two, he's the first person to show you that at every party at every dinner. Maybe take a shirt off. Shirt comes off like before dessert. I'm Bruce Bozzi. You may not know me yet, but you already know most of my launch dates by their first names and voices alone. That was George and Julia. But believe it or not, my podcast guests see me as more than just a piece of meat like my thoughtful friend Scarlett. Bruce Bozzi, I love you so much. And I love meeting minds with you. What we do on my new podcast, Table for Two, is what everyone does when they're at lunch with an old friend. We tell stories. We definitely gossip. James Corden wound up kind of

ripping off your set. There you go. And we always go deep. Listen to Table for Two on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. All right. So Chuck, you said that the Marshall service is pretty versatile and for good reason. They have at least four main areas of operation. And probably the best known one, thanks to Mr. Tommy Lee Jones, the class act, is catching fugitives and not just federal fugitives. They also support state and local law enforcement groups in catching their fugitives, too. So the Marshalls are basically just big show offs. I got a couple of stats here, Josh. Okay. In 2010, I'm just going to pepper your information with stats about that. In 2010, they arrested more than 81,900 state and local fugitives. That's

when they're helping everyone out. It was 89,901. And as far as federal fugitives, they arrested more than 36,000 in 2010 alone. Yeah. That's a huge uptick in state and local. Because in 2007, in the article, it cites 46,800 state and local fugitives. So that's close to double. Yeah. Yeah. Good work. Yes. Well, part of that was Operation Falcon. Yeah. That was mainly to nab unregistered sex offenders, right? It depends. It's a fugitive capture operation. And in 2007, they were up to the end of phase three. And I think each phase would be a different part of the country and then maybe a different emphasis. So Falcon three in 2007 was launched to catch people who were supposed to register as sex offenders, but never did making them fugitives

in the Eastern U.S. And it nabbed 10,733 felons. Wow. Sex offenders. The people we do not want on the street. Just a few and gang members, more than 4800 gang members. And I think that's a part of Operation Falcon, right? I believe so. Gang stuff. Yeah. Because ICE is responsible for immigration. Right. So although the Marshall service have four outposts, Mexico, Jamaica, and a couple other places in the Caribbean. Yeah. Colombia and Dominican Republic. Okay. I think that's all drug related. That's just a guess. Yeah. But so they would and they do arrest people in those countries. One of the guys on their most wanted list was arrested in Mexico.

So they can operate outside of the country, but they wouldn't have anything to do with immigration. Although I can't see them not working with ICE. They might. Yeah. It seems like they will work with whoever asks for their help. Right. You know, they're like, sure, we can send a team down there. One of the other big aspects of their job is prisoner transport. Because they're in charge of basically looking over the court system, the federal court system. Anything that has to do with protecting a courtroom, transporting a prisoner, keeping the security aspect of the federal judicial system functioning. That's what they do. And a big part of that is shuffling prisoners from place to place. Yeah. And they do that via

the justice prisoner and alien transportation system. And that is literally their own bus line, airline, van line, whatever they need. If you've seen them pretty bad movie con air. Yeah. That was those were marshals. And every day they have 63,000, roughly 63,000 prisoners in custody. And then they transport these dudes and ladies, I guess, all over the, all over the place on planes. Yeah. Um, no beverage service. And I'll bet not. And I'll bet those, um, like the stuff on the seatbacks, uh, where you rest your head. Oh, yeah. I haven't been washed in a while. No in flight movie. No, it's no frills. Exactly. Is what it is. Yes. Uh, if you want to see a very frill laden aircraft, you should see airport 78. I think the third one.

I did you watch that recently? Yeah. That is awesome. You know what I watched the other day? What? Towering Inferno. I've got there my, um, instinct Q. It's pretty good, man. I got to say, like it holds, it's way too long. First of all, it's like two and a half hours long and it didn't need to be. Yeah. Like they should have cut out a lot of the plot points, but, um, as far as just like, uh, oh my God, what's going to happen? It was pretty big ranks still. Suspense. Yeah. That's the word. Yeah. It is. It's among, it's among the best of the 70s disaster flicks. Right? Yeah. And you got Paul Newman and Steve McQueen in the same movie. That's just off the, the tough guy meter. Yeah. Well, I didn't have my full attention last night. So I didn't watch that. Instead,

I punished me and you meet with, um, beyond the Poseidon adventure. That's so funny. We're on this kick of old disaster. Yeah. It's weird. Unbeknownst. Yeah. I had no idea until just this moment. Towering Inferno. Watch it. Airport 78. Okay. Okay. Um, so Chuck, I think it's 78. There's also 77. Yeah. There's a few 70, 75, 77. I think it's 77. Okay. It's the one where Jimmy Stewart owns a luxury airliner flying these people who end up beneath the surface of the Atlantic in the Bermuda Triangle. Okay. And you know who was in Towering Inferno? Who? Fred Astaire. Yeah. One of his last movies. And he actually, there's one small scene where he's dancing and my eyes were just like, Oh my God, Fred Astaire's dancing. Well, apparently in the Towering Inferno,

they had like 50 something sets and all the eight of them were like, went up in flames. Really? Yeah. Oh wow. Yeah. Geez. That's a side track. That's much more interesting than US Marshals, I think. So they transport prisoners. They capture fugitives. And then, um, we, we did a whole podcast on a witness security program, WITSEC, the Witness Protection Program. But we'll talk about it briefly here. Basically, it was conceived in 1970. And since then, the Marshall Service, which basically hides federal witnesses and keeps them hidden, gives them new lives, or just, you know, keeps them in safe houses during trial, depending on the arrangement. Uh, they say that since 1970, since the beginning, not one witness has been harmed if they follow

the rules. Right. Plenty of witnesses have been waxed. Yeah. But that's because they went to a movie or something with, you know, look at me. I'm Jimmy Two-Legs. Uh, Josh, they also, we, we said, protect the courts. They still do that today. More than 2000 judges and 400 courthouses nationwide. They, uh, install security systems. They provide personal escort and watch over high-risk trials. And, uh, there's also a few other people they help transport. Um, I think all federal judges, US attorneys, uh, personnel and jurors, um, they provide protection for and they transport, um, um, the Supreme Court justices outside of Washington, DC. I'm their annual picnic. I guess so. And I guess in DC, I'm not sure who it is. It may be Secret Service or something,

or maybe just, I don't know, local, local Marshalls. Okay. And we should point that out. Marshall is a term that's used a lot, but unless you are a US Marshall, then you're not part of the US MS. Okay. Like, you can be a Marshall, like some countries have Marshalls as, right, right, uh, military ranks or air Marshalls are not related to, um, the Marshall service. That surprised me. Yeah. I thought they were. I thought they were US Marshalls. They are not. Um, also we should say if you are, uh, if you're a drug dealer and you get popped for a beef by the feds and they take your stuff, it's the Marshalls who have it. They're in charge of asset, asset seizure. Yes. And distribution too. Like selling off stuff to give reparation to, to families and

victims and stuff. Or to fund the Marshall service. Or to fund the Marshall service. And you'll picnic. Uh, what else can they do, Josh? Uh, they have a SWAT group, special operations group, which basically does the same thing that SWAT teams do, but for federal stuff. Okay. That makes sense. And, um, they once arrested, arrested, and making air quotes, a fleet of, um, 18th century shipwrecks off the coast of Rhode Island at the request of the governor, um, to protect it, to take it in, take these into federal custody and protect them from vandals and, um, salvagers. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I got a stat on the assets. They currently manage 18,000 assets valued at 3.9 billion bucks. That's a lot of cigarette boats.

And in 2010 paid, um, victims of crimes about $350 million. So they do use it for reparations, huh? Some of it. Uh, they also made payments to state and local law enforcement agencies of 580 million. So maybe they repay like, if you wrecked your police cars in the pursuit of this guy, we'll pay you back. Here's some money. We're going to sell off their stuff and we'll pay you back. Just remember, Uncle Sam takes care of you. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy, number one, is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute, uh, 2,200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah. And they can do that without any drugs on the table.

Without any drugs, of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil answer. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. People who don't know Bruce have to understand two things. One is he's built like something Michelangelo is carved out of a piece of marble. This is true.

And number two, he's the first person to show you that at every party at every dinner. Maybe take a shirt off. Shirt comes off like before dessert. I'm Bruce Bozzi. You may not know me yet, but you already know most of my launch dates by their first names and voices alone. That was George and Julia. But believe it or not, my podcast guests see me as more than just a piece of meat like my thoughtful friend Scarlett. Bruce Bozzi, I love you so much. And I love meeting minds with you. What we do on my new podcast, Table for Two, is what everyone does when they're at lunch with an old friend. We tell stories. We definitely gossip. James Corden winds up kind of ripping off your set. There you go. And we always go deep. Listen to Table for Two on the iHeart radio app,

Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What else, Josh? Well, we talked about how the Mars services set up within the 94 districts and the 3953, 3953 deputies. But how did they get there, Chuck? Apparently they used to have an exam. And then now they use the standard federal career intern program, which takes a couple of years to get you to make sure that you're not just some jerk who could fill out an application or wants a free gun. Yeah. So you got to pay your dues for a couple of years. And if you've got the right stuff, then you have to go through a 17 and a half week training course at the U.S. Marshal Service Training Academy in Glencoe, Georgia. Did you know the Marshal's Training Academy was here? I didn't. And I didn't even know.

Did you know there was such a place as Glencoe, Georgia? Actually. And it's sort of halfway between Jacksonville and Savannah. Oh, okay. It's down on the coast in your St. Simon's. It does ring a slight bell. I think it was not even a place until they put the thing there. And they named it Glencoe. I don't know if that stands for anything, but I don't even think that was a legitimate town until they set up a 1600 acre campus that has its own zip code. That is very neat. It's big. Chuck, if you want to become a U.S. Marshal, there's some ... Now you can't just fill out an application. You have to go through the training program, but even to get into the training program on the U.S. Marshal track, there's some

qualifications you have to have. You have to be a U.S. citizen. Chuck. You have to be between the ages of 21 and 36. Nope. You could still. I could. I'd better hurry up. Being good physical condition. I would say I'm not, and you're so-so. So-so. Would you say you're in good physical condition? I would. So you could pass these tests? I could. You could do the 50 chin-ups and run the mile in a certain time. Over a long enough period of time, I could. Okay.

A bachelor's degree? Check. Three years experience in law enforcement or other qualifying job experience? No. A valid driver's license? Yep. And a good driving record? Yeah. No, okay. I'm good. Well, aside from the age limit, then you're fine. And the physical condition and the experience? So pretty much I'm a U.S. citizen and I have a driver's license. Right. That's what qualifies me. There's some famous Marshal's besides Tommy Lee Jones.

And Bat Masterson, who I mentioned. Did you mention him? Yeah, I said I just kind of threw him in earlier. Was Marshall Dillon a real person, Matt Dillon? Or was he just a fictional character? I don't think he was fictional character. Pretty sure. Oh, TV, baby. Wyatt Earp was real, though. Yeah. And Virgil and Morgan Earp, his brothers, they were all Marshal's. As was Wild Bill Hickok.

And Wild Bill is the tie that binds the Marshal's podcast and the Sword's following podcast. Because he brought in a Cowboys and Indians set up to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. Oh, look at you. He pops up in both. Wow. Yeah. Frederick Douglass had no idea that he was a U.S. Marshal. No. And the Marshal for DC, too, which I imagine is probably a pretty busy district. Yeah. Did you see? Oh, you don't watch Louis, do you? No. He had an episode where his daughter dressed up like

Frederick Douglass for Halloween. Oh, wow. And apparently that was what he wanted to be when he was a kid one year. So he brought it back years later for his show. Really? Yeah. Nice. What else? Josh, they have the most wanted list that is different than the FBI's. Yeah, I remember they caught that one dude in Mexico. Yeah, they caught one of their own dudes in Mexico that went to the other side, I think, too.

Oh, yeah, down in Juarez. That's right. He, like, went renegade and turned into a drug-dealing murderer, allegedly, allegedly, allegedly. These days, Josh, the director is a lady named Stacia Hilton. And it was a really controversial nomination, actually, by Obama. How so? Well, she was... She's a socialist? She has had strong ties to the private prison industry.

Oh, yeah. And the U.S. Marshals is also responsible for awarding contracts to build federal prisons. Oh, yeah. So, basically, it was one of those deals where they're like, hey, she made a lot of money as a consultant for all these companies. You appoint her and she's going to give her friends in the private prison industry fat contracts. So she had petitions going around, basically, but the nomination did go through. I see. And apparently, it was kind of sped through.

So all those people out there, we like to call out folks on both sides. We're doing it. Good going, Chuck. Yeah, thanks. And also, I should say, there's between 200 and 400 Marshals that have died in the line of duty since 1789. That's not a lot. No. And the first was a guy named Robert Forsythe.

And he went to go serve court papers for a civil case to two brothers, Beverly and William Allen. And he took the Allen Brothers aside to say, hey, I don't want to embarrass you, but here's some papers. And rather than come with them, they ran upstairs, locked themselves in the door. When they heard Forsythe coming up the stairs, they shot through the door and hit them in the head and killed them instantly. So here's the first, first Marshall shot during the line of duty in Augusta, Georgia. Yeah. And I actually saw that he was the first law enforcement officer ever killed in the line of duty in the United States. And he wore like powdered wigs and everything, too.

It was like old-timey colonial. Yeah, 1790. Well, just post-colonial. So that's it. That's US Marshals, right? That's right. They do a valuable service, and now you know what that is. Thanks to Chuck in his law enforcement crush.

You know, you and the Grabster, you guys are kindred spirits for sure. I do watch cops. Yeah. Do you? Yeah. I mean, not like, I don't know when it comes on, but if I'm in the right mood and I'm channel surfing and I'll see it's on like nine times in a row, I'll watch five or six of them. Do you ever watch real stars or the highway patrol? Uh, yeah, real stories.

Yeah. Yeah, I watched all those shows occasionally, not, I just want to point that out. This happens like once a month. It's not like I know in there. I don't schedule my TV. I got you. I got you. And then Emily always busts me and is like, oh my god, how do you watch this?

Right. And it's like, well, these people make me feel better about myself. They would make you a fan. Yeah. If you want to learn more, and you, I'm speaking to you, the listener now, if you want to learn more about the US Marshals, you can type in marshals, 1L. I was looking up that show in plain sight and even on the USA network site, they spelled marshals with 2Ls, which is a name of a person.

Yes, it is. With 2Ls. So it's M-A-R-S-H-A-L. I got it. You can type that in the search bar at howstuffworks.com, which means it's time for listener mail. That's right, Josh. And this is a little Kiva related thing. You want to tell everyone about Kiva real quick?

We have a Kiva team. It's kiva.org. K-I-V-A. Right. And it's a microlending site where you can go on and lend 25 or more bucks to people in developing countries. They use it to ostensibly keep their businesses afloat and grow. And basically you're fighting poverty and all sorts of other problems through microlending.

And what's our goal here? Our goal is to get to, I think, 600,000 or three-quarters of a million weeks. I think 750,000 by when? The end of this year? Okay, yes. Yes, we're supposed to get to three-quarters of a million by the end of the year, yes. And we have to thank Glenn and Sonia for kind of heading that up. Yes.

Our fans who set the goals for us because they're smarter than we are about figuring out if it's attainable. Yeah, they boss us around. They too. So anyway, this is from Aaron H. and Denver. Hi, guys. Wanted to write in and let you know how glad I am to support kiva.org along with you. I had found the site before your microlending podcast, but didn't completely understand it

until then. Since the date of that podcast, almost two years ago, I've made 26 loans and I'm a member of the Stuff You Should Know Lending team. Nice. The other thing I wanted to share with you is that I just started volunteering with Kiva. I applied over a year ago to be on their volunteer editing team, and they finally had an opening last month and invited me to join. Long story short, they won't let me leave.

Please send help. My job is to get the loan descriptions directly from the field partners and then edit them before they go live on the web. Kind of cool. Yes. Didn't know that they did that, took volunteers like that. We edit for grammar and clarity and also check to make sure that the loans details are correct. I usually edit around 10 to 25 loans per week, and I love knowing that when I hit the submit

button, I'm directly improving someone's life, and that is from Erin H. in Denver. Awesome. Thanks, Erin. Pretty cool. She's given money and she's loaning her time and expertise. That is very cool. Very neat. If you want to learn more about Kiva and microlending, you can listen to our microlending podcast

or episode. You can also check out our Kiva team, kiva.org, slash team, slash stuff you should know to join. That's right. And let's see, you can also tweet to us at S-Y-S-K podcast. You can check us out on Facebook, and you can also send us an email to stuffpodcastathowstuffworks.com. Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join How Stuff Works staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow.

Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? One in four Americans have reported being victims of crime. But what happens when we survive? That's what we explore in the podcast, Survivors' Heal. I invite you all to listen in as we discuss the healing side of true crime and what I call the new survivors movement. It's a movement that centers healing and speaks truth to power.

Listen to Survivors' Heal, available on my iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.